News

Campaign to promote shared parental leave18/02/2018 - More...In its “Good Work” response to the 2017 Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices, the government stated that, as part of its commitment to raising awareness of employment rights, it was to instigate a campaign to encourage more working parents to take shared parental leave (SPL) in their baby’s first year. That campaign, called “Share

Appealing to a tax tribunal13/02/2018 - More...There are a number of different options open to taxpayers that disagree with a tax decision issued by HMRC. The first step is to make an appeal to HMRC against the tax decision. If taxpayers do not agree with HMRC’s appeals review, there are further options available which include making an appeal to a tax tribunal or using the

Does a charity pay tax?13/02/2018 - More...The tax treatment of charities can be very complex. As a first step any charity hoping to benefit from any beneficial treatment needs to be recognised as a charity for UK tax purposes by HMRC as well as meeting other criteria.
A recognised charity may qualify for a number of tax exemptions and reliefs on income and gains, and on profits

Pay and paternity leave13/02/2018 - More...When your partner gives birth or when you adopt a child or have a baby by surrogate, you may be entitled to 1 or 2 weeks paternity leave and paternity pay. You are also entitled to take a small amount of unpaid time off work before the baby is born to accompany your partner (or the surrogate mother) to 2 antenatal (or adoption)

What to do if you have stopped work13/02/2018 - More...HMRC issues some helpful guidance that covers what you need to do if you stopped work. The guidance covers the main reasons that you might have stopped work such as being made redundant or leaving your job.
If you have been made redundant then you may have overpaid tax as a result of your redundancy payment. HMRC may in some cases refund

Can you change a Will after death?13/02/2018 - More...One might expect that the answer to this question would be a definitive no. However, under certain circumstances a will can actually be changed after death. This is done by using what is known as a Deed of Variation. Any changes to the will must be done within two years from the date of death. However, beneficiaries who would be left

How to get proof of employment history13/02/2018 - More...A special employment history request can be submitted by taxpayers for those needing to make a claim for compensation. The form is usually used for claims relating to industrial injuries, road traffic accidents, medical negligence and hardship.
HMRC will only accept requests that are made using the Employment history team: claimant’s

Tax-Free Childcare available now13/02/2018 - More...The Tax-Free Childcare Scheme (TFCS) was launched in April 2017 to the first tranche of working parents. The scheme was initially made available to working parents of children aged under 4 on 31 August 2017. On 15 January 2018, the scheme was extended to parents whose youngest child is under 9. The scheme was opened to all remaining

Draft regulations to increase the national minimum wage published11/02/2018 - More...The draft National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Regulations 2018 have been laid before Parliament and are due to come into force on 1 April 2018. The regulations will increase the various rates of the national minimum wage (NMW) and national living wage (NLW) as follows:
the NLW rate for workers aged 25 and over will rise from £7.50 to

10.7m tax payers filed before the deadline06/02/2018 - More...HMRC has issued a press release detailing the number of online filings made for the 2016-17 self assessment returns. The use of the online service continues to grow year on year. In this year a total of over 9.9 million online filings were made by the 31 January 2018 deadline. A further 770,000 tax returns were submitted using paper

Income from selling services online06/02/2018 - More...Many taxpayers supplement their income by selling services online. This is often known as the 'sharing economy' or the 'peer-to-peer economy' and usually involves taxpayers renting out something they are not using such as their house (using websites such as AirBNB), car, car parking space or other personal equipment.
It can also involve

Delaying tax with rollover relief06/02/2018 - More...Rollover relief is a valuable relief that allows for a delay in the payment of capital gains tax (CGT) on gains when you sell or dispose of certain assets and use all or part of the proceeds to buy new assets. The relief means that the tax on the gain of the old asset is postponed. The amount of the gain is effectively rolled over into

Text message scammers stopped by HMRC06/02/2018 - More...HMRC has published a news release to explain how they are working to stop taxpayers receiving fraudulent text messages from reaching their phones. Scammers have been found to be using text message or SMS phishing scams to contact taxpayers.
These scams have been increasing as fraudulent text messages can appear more legitimate than

Paying NIC if you go abroad06/02/2018 - More...If you move abroad it can be advantageous to continue paying UK National Insurance Contributions (NICs) in order to preserve your entitlement to the State Pension and other benefits. If you are working in the European Economic Area the rules depend on your situation. The EEA includes all EU countries as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein and

Tax consequences of importing vehicle into the UK06/02/2018 - More...The Notification of Vehicle Arrivals (NOVA) is an online notification system for vehicles entering the country for permanent use on UK roads. There is a separate process for personal imports from outside the EU and for the temporary importations of a motor vehicle.
Under the system anyone who brings a vehicle into the UK is required to

Retailers encouraged to employ more disabled workers04/02/2018 - More...The Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work has launched a new campaign to encourage more retail employers to sign up to its trailblazing “Disability Confident” employer scheme, to increase the number of disabled people in the workforce. The government aims to see one million more disabled people in work by 2027.
Around 123,000

DBS updates identity checking guidelines04/02/2018 - More...The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) has introduced new identity checking guidelines for standard and enhanced disclosure checks. The new guidelines have been running in parallel with the previous guidelines since October 2017. However, the previous guidelines have now ceased to apply, and employers must use the new version.
The

A reminder to consider a carry back of charitable contributions30/01/2018 - More...Donations to charity over the course of a tax year can add up and taxpayers must ensure they keep a proper record of all donations to record them on their tax return. Donations that are made through the Gift Aid scheme allow for the recipient charity to claim 25p worth of tax relief on every pound donated. Higher rate and additional rate

Nominating a home for tax purposes30/01/2018 - More...As a general rule there is no CGT payable on the disposal of a property which has been used as the main family residence. Conversely, an investment property which has never been used will not qualify for relief. This relief from CGT is commonly known as private residence relief (PRR).
It is increasingly common for taxpayers to own more

Reasonable excuse for late filing of your tax return30/01/2018 - More...Taxpayers that have not yet filed their 2016-17 self-assessment returns will have been charged an automatic £100 penalty for late submission. The penalty applies from 1 February 2018 even if no tax was due or the tax due was paid on time.
In some cases, it can be possible to appeal against any penalty on the grounds of having a good

Did you file before the deadline?30/01/2018 - More...HMRC revealed that, as of 24 January 2018, there remained over 3 million taxpayers who had not yet submitted their 2016-17 self-assessment returns. This left a lot of people with a lot of work to do in the final week before the submission deadline.
Any taxpayers who missed the filing deadline will receive a £100 fixed penalty if their

Seconding employees to a charity30/01/2018 - More...There are special rules in place when a limited company gives to a charity. This can include Corporation Tax relief for certain donations made to registered charities or community amateur sports club (CASC) as well as capital allowances for giving away equipment that has been used by your company.
There are also special rules if your

Claiming tax relief for uniforms, work clothing and tools30/01/2018 - More...Employees who use their own uniforms, work clothing and tools for work can sometimes claim tax relief for the associated costs. It is possible to claim for the cost of repairing or replacing small tools you need to do your job as an employee (for example, scissors or an electric drill), or cleaning, repairing or replacing specialist

Businesses urged to prepare for stronger data protection laws28/01/2018 - More...Following the publication of new government research which shows that fewer than half of businesses are aware of forthcoming new data protection laws, the government has urged businesses to act to make sure the personal data they hold is secure and that they are fully prepared for the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the